Tis The Season
by belle.nisce
Summary: [Cloud x Tifa x Reno] The Turks get blown into Seventh Heaven by a sudden snowstorm to make for a very abnormal holiday season. Drabbleage. Post AC. [COMPLETE]
1. Season's Greetings

**'Tis The Season**

**

* * *

CHAPTER ONE: DAY ONE**  
**--Seasons Greetings--: **The Turks have a change of plans.  
**A/N: **I'm not too sure what prompted me to write this little drabble series. Perhaps because it is nearing Christmas, and I do so adore Christmas cheer. :Confounded pause: Do they have Christmas in Midgar? Eh. Why not.  
Don't take offense that I'm making the holiday they celebrate Christmas and not Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or that one Hindi holiday. I'm not biased—I've just never celebrated the others, and don't want to sound like an idiot. So Christmas it is. Besides, you get presents in all of 'em, anyhow. I think… (See what I mean?)  
**This takes place the winter after Advent Children.

* * *

**

Tifa Lockhart blamed it on the snow.

It was three weeks before Christmas, and she had already hung the usual decorations over Seventh Heaven: mistletoe over the stairway arch; wreaths on the doors; a little tree in the corner of the bar, the ornaments still in a cardboard box, since she neither had the time nor the willpower to put them all up yet.

Earlier that day, the pounding rain promised danger, and had turned first into thick balls of sleet that bounced off the windows, and then into powdery snow; and the howls of the wind outside blew the foundations of Seventh Heaven furiously, making the concrete walls shudder and Tifa pause uncertainly.

Cloud had come home sopping wet and far too late for Tifa's liking, after it was hard to see five feet in front of him anymore, two undelivered packages in his hand. The snow instantly melted into puddles by the front door as he shook the glittering dust off of his shoulders and hair. Tifa got a mop from the back closet whilst Cloud told everyone still at the bar to go home when they still could. Marlene abandoned her homework and fetched a big beach towel to drape over the spiky blonde, and Denzel bused the tables as the few locals downed their last drinks, left their tips, and shrugged on their coats, ready to brave the way home.

An hour later, Tifa was just about to swing the sign on the door to 'Closed'—not that anybody could see it in the swirling snow anyway—when there was a sudden, indistinct crash somewhere outside in the near vicinity, muffled by the shrieking wind.

Cloud looked up from the bar where he was paying the electric bill, and both him and Tifa stared at the door for a long moment as if they expected snow monsters to come barreling inside, ready to devour all in their path.

Without warning, Cloud and Tifa's unvoiced thoughts came true, and there was a furious banging on the door, shaking the snow off of the glass pane to reveal hazy shadows outside. Tifa gasped, and Cloud instantly retrieved his sword from the back wall where it had been resting.

There were shouts outside that were carried away by the wind, and abruptly, the door banged open to blow in the biting cold, flurries of snow, and four snow monsters carrying suitcases.

Marlene, who had been watching from the top step, screamed and ran to Tifa, hugging her knee. Cloud swung his sword forward, but raised an eyebrow a moment later and dropped his arm.

The snow monsters, like Cloud had, were stamping off the white from their bodies, shrinking smaller and smaller until—a flaming red head of hair appeared. Cloud scowled as the young man halfheartedly raised his nightstick to point it at his face, bringing his sword again to meet it with a metallic clang.

Tifa, who recognized them a moment later, sighed, her hands on her hips. "It's you lot." She nodded polite acknowledgement to the four of them, saying her respective hellos.

Tseng, who had brushed enough snow from the top of his head to make out his raven hair, warily thumped more snow from his pants to the floor. "Reno, drop it."

Reno smirked at Cloud and obligingly dropped his nightstick. "All in good fun, yo."

Cloud had not relaxed from his defensive stance. "What are you doing here? You're not welcome."

Reno sighed, promptly flopping onto a barstool. "Hey, you think we _want_ to be here, yo?"

Elena, whose blond hair was damp and stringy and was helping Rude beat snow off of his back, made up for her comrade, asserting, "We're stuck."

"Stuck?" Tifa asked, an arm still around Marlene.

"Yes. We were on our way to a little time off when the blizzard bent one of the helicopter's spinners, and the engine froze. You might have heard us crash-land?" Tseng replied, shaking out his hair.

"It was gonna be a warm vacation, too." Reno added grumpily. "Right by the southern coast, yo. Now we're stuck here."

As obvious, Cloud was still a bit skeptical about this information and, of course, wanted them to leave. "I'll call Rufus." He said, starting up the stairs. Tseng stopped him.

"All of the phone lines are cut."

Cloud paused, turned back, and took out his cell phone.

"We tried that, Chocobo. The cellular services are down, yo."

"And all modes of transportation are closed. We've checked that as well," added Elena. Tifa sighed, reassured Marlene and Denzel, who had been standing frozen near the back room, that it was all right, and resolutely got out the mop again.

"Then… you'll just have to stay here."

* * *

Against Cloud's wishes, Tifa had dragged him into the backroom for a 'meeting' and there, bullied him into letting the Turks stay temporarily. As Cloud stared at her moodily, his arms crossed, Tifa said that maybe the Turks weren't who they used to be. Shinra was remolding itself from the horror it once was, right? Maybe they were just trying to mend their lives as well, and live. Perhaps they had changed, or were never that horrible of people, besides their assassin status (which Cloud found almost laughable); besides, they had worked alongside them during the Geostigma outbreak, and before that. "Anyway, they even tried to pay rent," Tifa informed him with an almost amused chuckle. Tseng had insisted that they pay for their living quarters, and had taken 120 gil out of his wallet. He then proceeded to prod money out of his fellow Turks, and when the other three seemed reluctant, he had all but practically hung them upside down by their feet, shaking out the contents of their pockets.

Elena had 20 gil, a stick of lip balm, and her gun; Reno's pocket revealed a pack of smokes, a few gil, and three phone numbers—one of which was written in sparkly, pink writing—of Shinra-knows-who; and Rude had ten pairs of sunglasses.

Tifa had decided not to ask about that one, and after unsuccessfully trying to say that they didn't need to pay her, to which Tseng replied that they must, told them that they could pay her back by working it off at the bar.

Reno looked resentful. "Aw, what's there to do anyway during a snowstorm, yo?"

Tifa equipped him with rubber gloves, a bucket of bleach, and showed him the art of cleaning bathrooms, and Reno was smart enough to shut up after that.

At nightfall, everything was more or less in order again. Marlene and Denzel, who had felt a little uncomfortable with the four Shinra assassins around the place, had loosened up a little bit, though they still hid behind doors and ducked into rooms most of the time. Marlene had offered a hesitant, shaky smile to Elena, who had grinned cheerily back at her, and Denzel had helped Tseng move his suitcases. It was something. More than Cloud, who had remained mostly silent from the time of their arrival.

After a slight disagreement, the Turks had been assigned living quarters. Elena was to get the guest room; Reno would sleep in the office on the pullout sofa; Rude occupied the back room (Tifa and Cloud extracted a dusty cot from the closet); and Tseng slept in the main room couch, by the fireplace (1).

Cloud wanted to sleep on the couch to oblige their visitors, no matter how welcome—or unwelcome—they happened to be, but after many shouts of protests from all four Turks and the children against it, he was quite literally pushed back into his room and the door slammed in his surprised face. Elena told him through the door that if he even attempted to sleep on the couch, Tseng would sick Rude on him. Rude confirmed this fact with a slight grunt, and even though Cloud knew that beating Rude wouldn't be such a hard feat, he decided there was no point in stirring up trouble.

Maybe Tifa was right.

* * *

By day three, the mammoth blizzard had blown itself over, the exhausted wind shriveling back to a gentle but stinging breeze. A few folks had braved the towering mounds of powder and dug their way to the top of the twelve feet snow to snowshoe around town.

Tifa had thought that Seventh Heaven would be relatively empty throughout the effects of the whiteout, but by six o'clock that night, there were knocks on the buried door and she opened it to reveal two locals, wanting beers, and she had to tell Tseng to remove his blankets from the couch and stoke the fire.

By eight o'clock that night, the bar was as busy as it was any other night; apparently, the townsfolk needed to get out their houses and socialize—get a breath of fresh air, as one of them told her—somewhere, and Seventh Heaven was the perfect place. They had even dug a tunnel of sorts from the top of the snow to the door, so that one could simply jump down to the front step after snowshoeing around.

Tifa put Elena to work as a waitress, and she did relatively well, catching extra tips from the men, before Reno, who had been placed behind the bar counter as he knew how to mix drinks exceptionally, appeared by Tifa, glaring after his co-worker. "She thinks she's such a jewel," He grumbled, before tying on one of the aprons.

Tifa asked him what he was doing, to which he said, "Babe, I'm gonna show her how a _real_ master does it." And rolling up his sleeves, he took a shot of Vodka and promptly took up a tray of orders to a table of young women.

So of course, Tifa had to place Tseng behind the counter, and told Rude to take over Tseng's position of 'bouncer'. The bar was more festive than usual that night. Reno, of course, proved to be a great success with the ladies, and when they closed, he and Elena counted tips and bickered about who made the most before handing it all to Tifa to 'pay off their continuous debt.' Rude had been able to prevent four fights amongst the more tipsy men, and Tseng improved so much at taking and making drink orders he didn't even need the order pad or the ingredient book.

They all looked exhausted, so Tifa hustled them up to bed, laughing a bit after them as they congratulated themselves on the first night of bar work.

She turned to Cloud, who had been brooding behind the counter most of the night as he watched the Turks work their magic. "See? I told you they weren't all bad," She said with a brief, tired smile, before hanging up her own apron to go upstairs to check on Marlene and Denzel.

Tifa was probably right.

Cloud sighed, his grip on his sword that he had hidden under the counter loosening, before following her up.

* * *

(1) _I'm almost sure they don't have a fireplace in Seventh Heaven, but let's say there is for future references ._


	2. Cookie Lessons

**CHAPTER TWO: DAY FOUR**  
**--Cookie Lessons--: **Elena has never made cookies.  
**A/N: **I'm probably going to be focusing on each of the Turks, and this is Elena's chapter. This is rather sentimental, maybe a bit cliché…eh, whatever.

* * *

After finding dusty pairs of snowshoes, the Turks and Cloud decided to trek out to the helicopter to take a look at the damage. Denzel, who had never been in a helicopter, much less in a crashed one, was finally given the 'okay' by Tifa and Cloud to tag along after nagging them endlessly that morning.

Elena had attached a pair to her feet as well, and was almost out the door when Reno told her to stay behind and 'cook something', and leave the men to do the 'men's job'. (Typical Reno.)

Before Elena had a chance to protest, Tifa hastily said goodbye to the redhead and closed the door, giving Elena a harried smile. She didn't want Elena using inappropriate language in front of Marlene.

While Elena was taking off her many layers of outerwear, Tifa went behind the bar counter, where Marlene was busy digging in the storage pantry. When Tifa asked what she was doing, Marlene emerged with flour, sprinkles, eggs, cookie cutters, and frosting. "Let's make cookies," She said brightly. Tifa blinked.

"Cookies?"

Marlene nodded. "The fire-head one told us to cook something," Marlene said, hopping onto a barstool. By this time, Elena had padded over to the kitchen and didn't know whether to growl because Marlene repeated Reno's haphazard quotation, or to laugh because she called him fire-head.

Tifa shrugged as she got out the measuring cups, and asked Elena if she wanted to help. Elena laughed, saying she was the baby in her family and had never learned to cook. Nevertheless, she agreed, and the three women set to work to 'cook something'.

The cookie cutters were in Christmas shapes: pine trees, wreaths, presents, angels, and snowmen. Elena insisted on making her own batch, separate from Tifa and Marlene's, to test her nonexistent cooking skills. Tifa remarked that maybe she would get beginners luck.

The afternoon passed in a cozy, comfortable silence. Tifa unearthed the dusty disc player and some Christmas music from sheaves of papers in the office, and the three sang along to old favorites as they kneaded dough, cut the shapes, and arranged them on the cookie sheets. Elena worked hard all afternoon; by the end, she had flour all over her arms and on the bridge of her nose after it got itchy, and she was sweating.

Although neither Tifa and Marlene wanted to say it, they couldn't help but notice that Elena's dough was too thick; that her cookies didn't come out in the shapes she wanted them to; and that she had arranged them too close on the cookie sheet to bake properly. When Tifa tried to rearrange them, she was horrified as the cookie she was trying to pull off the sheet stretched like bubble gum into bizarre lengths. When she looked up, Elena had a similar look on her face.

"They always look better baked," Marlene assured Elena, as Tifa hastily stuck them in the oven. Elena nodded, but said that she was going to go wash up and left for her room.

* * *

Elena didn't come back downstairs when the egg timer rang. Marlene ran to open the oven, and a rather nasty smell greeted her nose. Tifa had put on a glove and, taking out the three cookie sheets, bit her lip.

Tifa and Marlene's cookies were perfect in every shape and form, down to the last golden snowman. Elena's, on the other hand, were burnt and her cookies were stiff as a board. Tifa almost cracked a tooth on one of them.

"Should I tell her to come down to help us frost them?" Marlene whispered fearfully. Tifa hesitated… and suddenly, her eyes lighting up, shook her head. As if Elena was in earshot, she bent down and whispered something into Marlene's ear. Marlene giggled, took Elena's cookies, and ran to the back garbage disposal as Tifa set the frosting out.

* * *

"Have a cookie," Marlene, who still wasn't used to all these scary men, hesitantly offered Tseng an angel cookie frosted with vanilla and red and green sprinkles that night. Tseng, who had just come down from his shower, raised a brow. Reno, behind him, poked his head from behind his leader. "What's been done to them?"

After Marlene assured them that they were delicious, Tseng, Reno, Denzel, and Cloud, their hair still damp, all proceeded to take cookies and bite into them. Elena was sitting on the couch, staring into the fire. Tseng smiled. "Tasty."

Tifa, appearing behind Marlene, smiled as well. "Elena made them."

Both Reno and Elena started, Elena falling off the couch in her hurry to examine her baking catastrophe. As Reno babbled that this was wrong because Elena couldn't cook worth a damn, Elena picked up a perfect cookie. "These are mine?" She asked, confused.

As Tifa nodded, and the men emptied the plate after Reno, examining the cookies from every angle, decided they were safe to eat. Elena paused. "But they don't even look like mine. Where're yours?"

She didn't catch the glance that Tifa and Marlene exchanged. Tifa shrugged, patting her stomach. "Marlene and I ate them all this afternoon."


	3. Uncle Reno

**CHAPTER THREE: DAY FIVE  
--Uncle Reno--: **Reno highly dislikes kids.  
**A/N: **Reno and Marlene. What a mix, eh? Originally it was going to be Denzel, but then I decided he and Reno would just get on each other's nerves. Shut up and applaud my logic.  
**A/N later: **Thanks, guys, for reviewing (both of you, haha). I know posting this so soon seemsa bit overeager, but i really like this chapter. Reno's one of my favorites. And don't worry, I've already written both a CloTi and a ReTi. So be patient. xDD.

* * *

Reno hated kids.

Even though he was once an uncle to his older brother's children, he'd called them brats and left it at that. Besides, they all were in Sector 7, and what was done was done. That was sort of a taboo topic for him, and not very many people knew. Nevertheless, be it his original mannerism, bitterness, or a sore spot, Reno generally avoided children.

That didn't stop Marlene.

It had all started when he accidentally spilled beer all over her picture. After lecturing him for about an hour, during which Reno fell asleep, Marlene doused him in his own beer and ran off, Reno storming after her with the empty beer can crushed in his hand, dripping in foam suds and reeking of fermented buckwheat.

After that, never mind Reno being at least twenty years Marlene's senior, they squabbled incessantly over every possible thing, from leaving the washcloth in the bathtub to smoking in the house. Tifa, Cloud, Denzel, and the other Turks were almost to the point of insanity when one afternoon, during one of the Reno-chasing-Marlene sequences, she had fallen down and skinned her knee on the concrete stairs. Tifa watched, amazed, as Reno paused, raised nightstick, unsure of what to do as he looked down at the little girl crying on the steps, her knee oozing blood. After a moment, he'd lowered the stick and without warning, scooped her into his arms and disappeared up the stairs. Tifa followed at a distance into the bathroom, where Reno had taken out the first aid kit and was busy bandaging Marlene's knee while he whistled a little tuneless tune to her, making her giggle. Afterwards, he instructed Marlene not to tell anyone about this or he'd be after her with his nightstick again.

After that, although they still argued like little children sometimes, Marlene became quite attached to 'Uncle Reno'. She made him hot cocoa a lot, and sometimes, Cloud or Tifa would find them coloring in front of the fireplace. Reno took her snowboarding once in the town square and ended up carrying her back to Seventh Heaven after she got tired and fell asleep. Once, by some bizarre agreement—perhaps he was drunk—Reno let Marlene do his hair, and after half an hour locked in the bathroom, Reno emerged with random, colorful bows and clips in his red hair, most of which were pink and clashed horribly. Everyone laughed themselves silly—Cloud even cracked a smile—and Reno had glared at them before leaving.

When Tseng asked Reno about his miraculous change towards children, Reno scoffed and mumbled something incoherent about how nothing had changed. "She's still a monster," He said.

One night, when the business was kind of slow and Cloud was out with the Turks and Denzel to try and do something about their copter again, Tifa heard something upstairs. Confused, as she thought that everyone was out at the jet, she walked up the stairs to see a ray of light from Marlene's room.

The door was open just a crack, and Tifa peered through to see Reno reading a story to Marlene, who was sitting in his lap. They were just finishing up the fairytale to 'happily ever after', and Reno closed the book and ruffled Marlene's hair, who scrambled under the covers. Tucking her in, Reno's hand was on the lamp when Marlene asked him if he still thought she was a little monster. Reno paused, and Tifa held her breath.

"Nah," He replied after a moment, grinning. "You're a _huge_ monster." Marlene giggled.

And, kissing her affectionately on the top of her head, Reno clicked the lamp off.

Tifa rushed down the stairs before Reno came out, and busied herself with washing up the dishes. When he came down to help her, he paused to stare at something pasted to the refrigerator.

Turning herself to the fridge to stow leftovers for when Cloud and the others got back, Tifa noticed a new picture that Marlene had drawn. It seemed to be a man holding a stick, grinning toothily, with red hair, who was holding hands with a little girl. "Uncle Reno," it said.


	4. Two Tired Turks

**CHAPTER FOUR: DAY SIX**  
**--Two Tired Turks--: **Denzel pokes sleeping dogs in the eye.  
**A/N: **I decided the best way to go about this one was to make it short.

* * *

After a hard days work repairing the bent spinner on their flying device, Rude and Tseng were tired. Everyone had taken a trip to the helicopter to help further the Turk's effort that day, except Tifa spent most of it making lunch and snacks and breakfast, and Elena had gone to get supplies from the warehouse, and Cloud and Reno ended up babysitting Marlene and Denzel, who wanted to learn to snowshoe. Thus, Rude and Tseng were the only ones really working on the helicopter itself, and after everyone traipsed back to Seventh Heaven, Tifa took Marlene to wash her dirty hair, Elena and Reno were opening the bar, and Rude and Tseng had instantly flopped on the floor upstairs, sound asleep in minutes.

It wasn't anyone's fault that the honey and the shaving cream and Elena's makeup were found in random places. Denzel set to work right away after checking for any weapons Rude and Tseng might have easy access to after waking up.

Just as he was putting the finishing touches of a perfect shaving-cream Santa beard on Rude, there was a creak of a floorboard and Denzel whipped his head around to find Cloud outside the room, eyebrow raised. He looked at the blonde guiltily, promising to clean it up.

Two hours later, shouts, thumps, and resounding crashes came from the upstairs. Tifa, Reno, and Elena could be heard thundering up the stairs to slam open the door, revealing Tseng and Rude who resembled sticky, foamy drag queens, the shaving cream, honey, and eyeliner in their own hands. As Reno laughed and said that Rude and Tseng must have done it themselves, Elena added that they must have had _some_ wild, kinkydream. She'd even forgive them for ruining her 50 gil lipstick.

Denzel and Cloud sat on the floor in the office, biting their lips to prevent from laughing. Denzel looked at Cloud, who brang a finger to his lips, a tiny grin escaping him anyway.

They knew they'd be roped into cleaning up, but hearing Tseng confusedly yell at Reno for the umpteenth time that he did _not_ do this to himself was worth it.


	5. Mr Handyman

**CHAPTER FIVE: DAY EIGHT**  
**--Handyman--:**Reno isn't as worthless as he looks. 

**A/N:** Being as Reno Turk is my favorite character of all time, I've had to restrain myself from writing the whole series about him. This one couldn't escape my clutches, though. It was just too cute to be forgotten. For all you Reno x Tifa shippers, here y'are, though it's not much. Happy holidays. Thank you everyone who's been reviewing. Winter break has been hella hectic around here, so I might not be able to update quite so much. Oh well. Please continue to read.  
**I WANT TO SEE EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO READS IT REVIEW. Y'HEAR? Good. Haha**

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* * *

**Early in the wee stretches of dawn, as she made breakfast whilst everyone was still snoring loudly in their rooms, Tifa discovered a note on the bar counter. _T – The two packages couldn't wait any longer, and I've gone to deliver them via snowboard. Don't wait up for me; I have to go to Junon and it might take awhile. – C.S._

Of course. Cloud was always doing impossible feats before the world was ready for him, Tifa thought as she folded the note and stowed it in her pocket with a small shake of her head. Junon. What a ways on a simple snowboard.

Later, Tseng and Rude had awoken with horrible colds and were immediately sent to bedrest in Elena's room, out of the hustle and bustle. Elena, in an act of charity, had snow-shoed with Denzel and Marlene out to a neighbor's house, the lonely old man who lived on the corner who never received any visitors, with a barrel of Tsingtao. Tifa had wanted to go along, but she was stuck at home with a burst water pipe that was flooding the main level with spurts of cold water.

Tifa struggled with it half the morning. After she discovered that the valve to turn the water system off was rusted shut, she spent the day plinking away under the sink with the box of hated tools, and by lunchtime, she was thoroughly drenched. She felt like screaming, jumping out to the snow and burying herself, diving into the Lifestream, anything; and gave the drain a good smashing with the wrench a couple of times. The water was still running at full flow by the time Reno woke up to drowsily thump down the stairs. He stopped just in time on the bottom step to avoid the puddles. Rubbing his eyes, as though he believed he was still dreaming, he stood there stupidly, staring while Tifa panicked, until she whirled around and snapped at him to bloody do something.

That seemed to wake him up. "Okay, okay. Keep your panties on, yo," He said easily, promptly rolling up his plaid pajama bottoms to step into the swirling waters. Tifa sighed exasperatedly, handed him the toolbox, and told him that if he needed her, she'd be upstairs changing out of her sink-water clothes. Reno disappeared under the sink after putting on his goggles to avoid splashing water in his eyes, and flashed a thumbs up at Tifa, who huffed at him before squelching away.

By the time she came down in fresh clothes, rain boots, and a towel around her damp hair, Tifa was surprised to see that the water flow had stopped. The metallic squeaking that came from under the sink told her that Reno was still hard at work. Tifa splashed over to bend down to see how Reno was doing. He, like she was, was soaked to the bone, his red hair plastered to his head. His goggles were off, but the water had seeped through his white t-shirt to stick to his skin underneath. "Almost got it, babe," He reassured her after putting down the jack wrench to replace it with a screwdriver. Tifa nodded and got out the mop again. She was stunned at his good work ethic.

By the time Cloud came home, the sun was well on its way to the horizon. The packages had been delivered, though he'd almost gotten into an accident with a tree. Wearily stocking the snowboard in the back shed, he jumped down from the unyielding twelve feet of snow to the front door. His hand stopped on the doorknob.

Tifa and Reno were sitting on the counter talking. Reno had a huge towel wrapped around him, and they seemed to be sharing a drink. Reno said something that apparently was another one of his wisecracks, and Tifa laughed. Both their glasses were now empty, and Tifa jumped down to refill them the same time that Reno did, and somehow or another, both their hands ended up on the bottle of fire-whiskey, Reno's on top of Tifa's. Cloud saw them pause, look surprised, and stare at each other for the longest time. He felt something plummet in his stomach, and decided that he needed to sleep it off.

So without further ado, he barged in and headed upstairs, noticing that the floor was rather damp. Upon his entrance, Reno had hastily taken his hand off of the whiskey and slammed open the refrigerator, busily searching for something, and Tifa had whirled around, thoroughly involved with staring at the bulletin board. Both of them were looking uncomfortable as they greeted Cloud. Sprinting up the top steps, he heard them laughing nervously together and Tifa say something to Reno that sounded like "Thank you, Reno-chan."

Reno-chan? Since when had Reno the enemy become 'Reno-chan'?

Cloud crashed into a groggy Tseng, who had just woken up for more medicine and had sleepily stumbled into the hall. Tseng rubbed his head. "Afternoon, Cloud-san."

"Tseng-san." Cloud acknowledged, before disappearing into his room. "I'm going to sleep." And with that, he shut the door in Tseng's face. Tseng, who was still a bit slow from sleep and sickness, contemplated what had just happened with a confounded look on his face.

"But it's three in the afternoon… isn't it?" Tseng slurred. Finally concluding that he must've the time wrong, because it must be almost close to midnight if Cloud was going to bed, he tottered unsteadily back into Elena's room. His sickness must be damaging to the brain, Tseng thought before slumping back into bed. He must go to the apothecary soon.


	6. Singin' in the Shower

**CHAPTER SIX: DAY NINE**  
**--Singin' in the Shower--: **Always, always lock the door.  
**A/N:** We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Some dumb guy is going to do this when you stay at a guest's house. Don't let this happen at home, kids. If it does, remember that it takes 17 muscles to frown but only 4 to slap the bastard cross the face. Just kidding. **Anyway, thanks everyone--EVERYONE!--for so kindly reviewing. I thought this story was slowly being sucked down the drain, but thankfully, it's not. So thank you all, and don't forget to review this chapter.** It's rather short, but I like it that way.

* * *

Somehow or another, Elena ended up painting the whole left wall of the bar by herself. Rude and Reno were assigned to help her at first, but after they started hurling clods of paint and newspaper at each other, Elena ignored them and the next thing she knew, she turned around to ask Reno to help her with a corner and he wasn't there. There were drips of paint leading up the staircase. Growling, Elena decided to just finish the task quickly.

'Quickly' ended up being the entire span of the afternoon. When she put down the roller, her arms were sore beyond belief and she was covered in white paint. Setting down her equipment to figure that Reno and Rude would get guilt-tripped into cleaning up the mess later, she padded up the stairs into the shared bathroom and shut the door. Stripping down quickly, Elena felt sweaty, covered in paint, and generally gross. She hadn't washed her hair in awhile.

The shower stall in the bathroom wasn't the kind with opaque curtains, but rather with a transparent, sliding glass door. Elena stepped in and turned the spigot on to just the right kind of warm, sighing with relief as she felt the sweat and the dankness of her hair melting off of her with the rising steam. "I'm staying in here forever," She decided as she picked up the shampoo.

* * *

It wasn't Cloud's fault that he couldn't hear the noise of the shower when he came upstairs. He had just come inside from a neighbor's house to where he'd been moving some of the crumbling concrete that had fallen into their house from the snowstorm, and rebuilding their walls.

Draping a towel over his shoulder as well as a change of clothes, he was so distracted with the thoughts of the late gas bill that when he opened the bathroom door, the steam that should have warned him to get out right then and there did nothing. Elena had just turned the water off, and Cloud stood there at the door staring at her for a second, Elena paused with one arm stretched out for her towel, the water dripping off of her body—before it hit Cloud that she was naked, and he shouldn't look. Jerking his head up, or down, or sideways to look anywhere but at her, he was too late for the piercing scream that shook the glass doors and made Rude and Reno, who were still fighting—now with snow—clamber up the stairs, thinking that she'd been attacked.

Reno had his nightstick out and Rude had a gun as they arrived at the crime scene. The door was now shut and Elena was screaming horrible obscenities at Cloud, who was still standing at the door. Rude and Reno, both out of breath, looked at Cloud, looked at the door, looked at each other, and burst out laughing, doubling up to fall on the floor. Hooting with laughter as Cloud looked uncomfortable, Rude patted Cloud on the shoulder and told him not to worry because he wasn't the first. Reno managed to get up and pound on the door, telling Elena to man up. There wasn't much to see anyway, he shouted, as they'd all walked in on her since she forgot to lock the door every single time she took a shower.

As Elena started cursing furiously at Reno from the other side of the door, Cloud massaged his temple and went back into his room. At least the kids weren't home.


	7. Figure Eights

**CHAPTER SEVEN: DAY 10**  
**--Figure Eights--:**The lake is the newest club.  
**A/N:** Originally I had written the series without this chapter. Then, after my friends and I went on our Cherry Creek Mall rink outing, I thought it up. It's not one of my more 'brilliant' ones; I guess its just a little interlude between witticisms… a long one.  
Anyway, thanks everyone, for reviewing again. **I WANT TO SEE ALL OF YOU REVIEW THIS CHAPTER. CONSIDER IT MY BELATED CHRISTMAS PRESENT.** Hehe. **Happy RonaHanaKwanzMas, everyone. Happy Holidays.

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**

Marlene was the one to get excited first about the lake freezing over. One of the little girls down the street—the one with the Modge stuffed animal always clutched in her hand—snow shoed all the way over to Seventh Heaven especially to tell Marlene that, and the following was a rush of begging on Marlene's part, including puppy-dog eyes that finally broke the insistence that it was too cold that day; disgruntled noises from the groggy adults as they roused themselves and thought about another time they could finally fix the broken fireplace or finish tacking the wallpaper; speeding around to look for extra layers of clothing as all the winter coats seemed to be lost or forgotten somewhere or half moth-eaten; random people banging into each other on the steps as they unearthed ice skates for everyone, causing more arguments; and generally harried noises as at first, none of the skates seemed to fit their feet.

Marlene was the first ready to go, bouncing around in front of the door like the excited little girl she was even though she'd never been before. Denzel, who'd had a bad experience when he was very young and almost got a concussion, grumbled alongside Elena and Reno and tried to 'accidentally' lose his ice skates—several times—one which included trying to chuck them up the fireplace. After he almost got another concussion because of that, he stopped and continued to mutter as he strapped on his snowshoes, the despised skates hanging over his shoulders. Reno and Elena tried to first feign sickness, then twisted ankles, ulcers, fatal heart disease, sleepiness, and finally, as Tseng and Marlene glared at them all, hastily zipped their coats and proclaimed themselves fit to go.

The falling snow lightly dusted their shoulders as they tramped out the short distance to the lake, surprised when they found half the town already slipping and sliding around the frozen premise. Laughter and happy shrieks were carried by the wind back to the troop. Marlene immediately jumped onto the ice to fall flat on her back. Everyone looked at Reno, who was taking his time to lace his sleek black skates. Throwing up his hands with an exasperated sigh, he dragged Rude with him and the pair skated after Marlene to pick her up. Elena admitted that she'd never been on ice either, and Tseng took her hand and pulled her onto it. Denzel was still grumping about the whole situation.

Tifa bent down next to him and after a few words of encouragement, lured him onto the ice, following close behind, as she knew Denzel didn't want her to hold his hand, only catching up when his arms made the famous pinwheel motion. Cloud glided alongside Tifa, some old hockey sticks dangling over his shoulder.

"There are a lot of things we should be doing," He said in a low voice. Tifa glanced over.

"I know. But look," she paused to turn in a circle, "When was the last time that the whole town had fun?"

He didn't answer, but he grinned a bit at her, and nothing more pessimistic was brought up again.

Before long, the men had set up a hockey game, with Cloud, Denzel, Rude, and two other townsfolk against Elena, Tseng, Tifa, Reno, and one of their neighbors. Marlene and the little girl with the Modge stuffed animal—whose name was Marina—applauded from the sidelines. The score was kept close and the day was punctuated by cheering noises and excited shouts from both teams. Cloud and Tseng scored the most for their teams, and obviously were the most competitive although neither of them would admit it. Tifa was more agile than the men, and once, blocked by Rude, hit the puck between his legs, did a flip over his head, and landed on the other side of him to shoot it in the goal. Denzel insisted that it was cheating, but they got a point anyway. Reno and Denzel proved to be two of the most exuberant players, always shaking their fists and shouting themselves hoarse with empty threats at each other laced with laughter such as "I hope the puck turns into a mound of Chocobo poo when it hits your goal and drowns the lot of you!" Every time their team scored, they would do victory dances and bow elaborately to make the townsfolk laugh. This stopped when Reno and Denzel skated into each other, skidded, did a sort of Matrix move, and fell in a heap of hockey sticks, mittens, and snow.

The game ended in a rather confused state. Cloud's team originally won, but as Elena yelled that they had committed a foul, they went into 'overtime' in which Reno scored twice to bring their score to the lead. Marlene and Marina, the scorekeepers, decided everyone won, and they all tromped over to accept hot chocolate from a neighbor who had set up a sort of 'refreshments' stand, their faces flushed and content.

Then everything wound down. Tseng taught Elena, a fast learner, how to do figure eights, whilst Cloud showed Denzel how to skate backwards. Tifa helped Marlene and Marina do crossovers, and Rude, an are-you-serious look on his face, watched Reno show off for a pretty neighbor girl.

Before long, the sky was darkening, and it was time to go back. The kids were worn out. As Marina's folks hadn't come with her, Tseng carried her on his shoulders, whilst Reno took Marlene on his and Denzel was placed in Cloud's arms. They made the short trip to Marina's house and trudged back to Seventh Heaven, where, before long, the house was sighing with the sound of even, steady breathing of sleep.

Tifa came downstairs to turn off the bar lights to see Cloud sitting on the counter. He was looking through the endless amount of bills in his hand. The water bill was late, the loan from the bank hadn't come yet, and they needed their heating system fixed. She sat down next to him, already forming reassuring words in her head as she poured them both mugs of herbal tea.

He gratefully accepted and stared into his cup.

"We can do it tomorrow," She said about the bills in Cloud's hand.

He put them down and gave his steaming tea a small smile. "I know," He said, surprising Tifa. "I wasn't thinking about that, actually."

Tifa sat in silence, waiting for his explanation that she knew sometimes did not come. But this time, it did.

Cloud paused, and finished his tea. "You were right again."

"I was?" Tifa frowned slightly. "About what?"

Cloud looked thoughtful as though he didn't know what to say. "Sometimes I get so caught up in saving everyone from their pain…that I don't remember that what they need the most is just to laugh." He smiled again as he rinsed out his cup and replaced it into the cupboard. "Thank you, Tifa, for letting me remember." He said, and disappeared up the stairs.


	8. Mr Handyman the Second

**CHAPTER EIGHT: DAY ELEVEN**  
**--Mr. Handyman the Second--:** Cloud isn't useless, either.  
**A/N:** I think I first saw this on **The Sound of Music**. After that, I started wanting to be a scheming nun. Little girl dreams, you know… ballerina, firefighter, princess, doctor, …nun. You know. And keep in mind I know nothing about helicopter mechanics. So if I sound like an incompetent idiot… it's probably cuz I am. **Anyway, my usual thanks to all my reviewers! It's really quite baffling to see this many people actually enjoy my idiocy. I guess I'm not the only one with a warped sense of humor. I love y'all!  
**This one's a bit more sentimental than anything. Oh well!  
**

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**

Tifa and Cloud woke up to the sound of Reno whooping, followed by the more civilized shouts of the other Turks. Groggily climbing down the stairs, she saw the newly formed snow puddles whilst the four Turks jumped up and down ecstatically, shaking the floor and high-fiving each other.

When Tifa asked what they were excited about—had they found the star to top the tree? —Tseng told her.

"The helicopter's almost fixed. We only have to tweak the engine a bit more and we're good to go."

Reno added to their happiness by saying that they'd be at the coast in time for actual Christmas "Not as great as three full weeks," He said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin, "But hey, you take what you can get, yo."

Marlene and Denzel had stumbled down to stand beside Tifa and Cloud, and all four of them gazed silently at the still cheering Turks. Elena grabbed Tifa and whirled her around while Reno took Marlene and started throwing and catching her, once almost hitting her head on the ceiling. Even Rude grabbed Denzel and did sort of a cha-cha dance with him, warbling an old Christmas song, and Tseng, more composed, shook Cloud's hand and gave him his thanks for housing them so long.

The Turks immediately declared a field trip to take a hike to the helicopter to see the great development on it, and all of them rushed upstairs to retrieve their coats. Cloud, Marlene, Denzel, and Tifa were left forlornly on the main floor, staring at each other and the leftover puddles. Tifa tried to smile.

"That's great that they're so happy about leaving. They'll have a nice holiday over there."

Marlene voiced all of their repressed emotions, cutting Tifa off. "No it's not! It's horrible!" Her voice sounded like she was close to tears, and she did indeed sniff, the tears pooling in her eyes. "I want them to stay for Christmas! I want them to stay!"

She was still shrieking protests when Tifa bent down to hug her. "We can't ask them to stay when they want to go, Marlene." She looked to Denzel for help, but he looked sullen.

"Why not?" He demanded, in that rebellious tone that children take sometimes right before they throw a tantrum.

Soon both children were crying, though they were trying their best not to. It was true… the Turks had become a part of their family. How could they leave right before the most special time of year?

Tifa, arms around both kids, finally admitted, "I _did_ want them to stay at least until after the New Year… Cloud, do you think you could make them stay…?"

Even as she asked him, she knew he wouldn't do anything.

"I can't do that. I'm sorry… but it's their choice." He said solemnly, before turning and vanishing up the stairs. Tifa felt a surge of frustration. She knew he had never quite welcomed the Turks as she and the kids had. Her grip tightened on the children, who had begun to cry out loud when Cloud turned away. There was nothing to be done now.

* * *

On their reluctant trip out to the helicopter, Tifa regretted seeing it in almost mint condition. The Turks were too wrapped up in their bliss to notice the certain dismal quality in their friends. They gave them a tour of the body of the helicopter, opening it up to point out exactly what was broken and what they managed to fix to be in even better form than before. Elena proudly pointed out the new spinner that she herself had attached, and Reno scowled at her as he informed them all that in fact, she had only held it in place while he fixed it in. Rude showed them all how he had shoveled all the snow out of the depths of the helicopter to make for a clean getaway.

The walk back was so gloomy it was almost like a huge rain cloud was hanging over them as does in cartoons, but the Turks were making enough noise to make up for the other four, saying they would be gone first thing in the morning.

That night, the very air of Seventh Heaven seemed dark, and the townsfolk in the bar left a bit earlier as to avoid catching the depression bug. The Turks instantaneously got busy packing. Marlene and Denzel went up to bed without even saying goodnight, and Tifa didn't say a word to Cloud before she shut the door to her room. The Turks were leaving so suddenly… but it was like them to do that.

* * *

Tifa, Marlene and Denzel all got up early the next morning to wordlessly watch the Turks leave. Cloud was nowhere to be found, and Tifa guessed that he was brooding somewhere again. As Rude, the last one, shut the door behind him, all three stared at the door for a long while before Denzel finally spoke, his voice cracking in the middle.

"They're really gone." And before Tifa knew it, she was weeping right along with him and Marlene.

Cloud suddenly appeared behind them. He looked strangely cold, and there were heavy bags under his eyes. He was holding his sword. Tifa thought she spotted some snow on his jacket, but didn't think much of it. He had probably gone to Aerith's church. Besides, she wasn't speaking to him yet, so she wouldn't ask, anyway.

And then, they didn't hear the roar of a helicopter overhead, but instead, familiar screeches coming towards the house. Tifa barely had time to look at Cloud, surprised, before all four Turks burst back into the house.

"It won't start! Something's not right! _AND_ something made the snow banks collapse on it! It'll take weeks to dig out again!" Elena wailed, and the Turks piled into the bar, looking tired and tinged blue. All of them were complaining, but they didn't look that grumpy. When Tseng told Tifa that they would probably have to stay until they figured out what was wrong with the damned helicopter, he was smiling, and Elena and Reno actually danced along with Denzel and Marlene, who were looking as thrilled as they had been yesterday.

As the Turks got busy unpacking yet again, Tifa suddenly had a thought and looked back at Cloud, who was still standing at the top of the stairs, looking pleased with himself. She raised a brow at him.

"So how long did it take you to pile on the snow?"

He hesitated. "Not as long as I thought it would."

And after a bit, he sighed and took out something he'd been hiding underneath his coat that made Tifa laugh out loud and forgive him on the spot. It was the spark plugs.

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**A/N: **The next chapter is probably my absolute favorite of them all. So don't forget to peek in in a day or two.Cheers! 


	9. Campfire

**CHAPTER NINE: DAY THIRTEEN**  
**--Campfire--:**It's like camp without the mosquitoes.  
**A/N:** I think I literally dreamed this scenario first. Cutting out the odd details that happen in every dream, you get this. It's rather cute—at least I think so. Anyway, here y'are. My favorite chapter of them all. When I was making an outline of all the chapters I was going to write in my little notebook, I couldn't wait to write this one. It's more like a drabble than anything, really. **Thank you readers! You make my life. I love you. )

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**

When he went to bed on the couch that night, Tseng was getting goose bumps up and down his arms, and was strangely shivering. That didn't happen very often, so he decided to be brilliant and start the fireplace. Earlier that day he had thought he heard the heating system making odd noises, but he wanted to be manly and that meant not complaining about the cold. So he sucked it up and lit the fire instead. It took awhile, but finally he had a beautiful crackling fire. Tseng grinned, patted himself on the back, and fell asleep.

* * *

"'Ey! 'Ey, Tseng! Scootch it over, yo!" Tseng was woken up from his dream of killing Kadaj in the middle of the night by two cold feet being thrust underneath his blanket. Jerking upright, he thought he saw a flash of red hair glinting in the fire. Yes, it was definitely Reno, with a huge quilt thrown over his shoulders.

"Wha?" Was all Tseng managed to slur as Reno patted the couch pillows and settled down, looking like an Eskimo with the huge quilt bundled over his head. Reno was shivering too.

"'Wha' is right, yo. It's freezing up there." And it must have been freezing, for Reno's teeth were chattering. Tseng could hear it. Tseng got up and put two more logs in the fire. The clock read 2:32 A.M. He fell back asleep, which wasn't easy, because Reno snored.

* * *

"Move your ass over, Reno!" Tseng was just about to stab Yazoo in the face when Yazoo melted into Elena, who was messing up his blanket order as she crawled under it. Reno yawned and grumbled about her disturbing his sleep, and she smacked him as two more cold feet were placed near Tseng's arm.

"It is like the Arctic zone upstairs," Elena shuddered against Tseng, making his body shake, too. He got up to put more logs into the fire and checked the clock. It read 3:01 A.M. Reno had started to snore again, and when Tseng finally got settled again, Elena's head dropped on his shoulder.

* * *

"Elena, you are _skinny_ and can shove over more than that." Once again, Tseng was one step away from killing Loz in with deadly pickles when Rude's baldhead glinted in the fire and woke him up. "It's cold," Rude explained. Reno cursed at them all, calling Rude a 'fucking grandma' or something like it before his head lolled again. This time, Elena received Rude's cold feet treatment. Tseng, who had a stack of logs within easy reach this time, pelted two into the fire. The clock read 3:17 A.M. Rude and Reno started snoring unison.

* * *

"OOF! Mother F…Marlene!" Reno let out a strangled yell. Tseng was getting rather cranky this time.

"Okay, I was _this close_ to killing Sephiroth, and… hello, Tifa-san." Tseng trailed off as Tifa, wrapped in another huge blanket, having just deposited a quivering Marlene into Reno's arms, shooed them all off the couch temporarily to pull it out into a bed.

"It's like sleeping on ice up there," She commented, and Tseng sighed resignedly and was just about to drop more logs into the bright fire when Tifa stopped him. "Already did it," She said with a smile. The clock read 3:45 or something like it, because Tseng's eyes blurred when he tried to read it.

* * *

"There you are, Marlene." Denzel's teeth were clanging together loud enough to wake the dead, and Tseng, who hadn't even bothered to dream anything this time, crossed his arms as the little boy piled in with a pillow and blanket of his own. Tseng was getting rather hot, and was only too glad to get up to pile fresh wood into the still-going fire. He turned back and saw Elena stretched out in his corner. At least, he thought it was Elena. He checked. Nope. It was Cloud.

Shoving him aside to make a little space for himself, Tseng took a long while to finally get comfortable again. His legs kept on colliding with somebody else, who kept kicking him. The clock read 4:32 A.M.

* * *

"Tseng-san. Tseng-san, wake up." It was all Tseng could do to keep from hurling continuous insults at them all when a mug of hot chocolate was placed under his nose. He glanced drowsily around. Everyone except for Marlene was awake, and they were all sipping from their own individual mug. "Nobody could really sleep," Tifa said in a low voice. "It was too cold. The heat must have given out last night."

"**_I_** was sleeping," Tseng muttered, but luckily, one of the logs popped and broke noisily, covering his incessant mumblings. The clock probably read something before 6:30, because Tseng didn't check it, but the sun wasn't up yet, so he was pretty sure that his prediction was accurate.

* * *

In the morning, as the early rays of welcomed sunshine seeped into the bar, nobody was awake in Seventh Heaven to appreciate it. Reno and Rude were snoring again, Elena was submersed totally under all the layers of blankets, Denzel and Marlene had fallen asleep fighting over a pillow, and sleeping Cloud's arm was protectively around a sleeping Tifa. And Tseng? He'd passed out over his mug of hot chocolate, which was still steadily dripping from the ends of his fingers onto the floor. One of his hands was gripped on a log.

The fire had finally turned to mere embers, and it gave a last red twinkle before dying.


	10. Guardian Angel

**CHAPTER TEN: DAY FIFTEEN**  
**--Guardian Angels--: **Marlene did an oopsie.  
**A/N:** This actually happened to my dad last year. We ended up at the mall the day before Christmas with all the last-minute hecklers. Not a pretty sight. I think I did more damage than help to him. One of his veins on his forehead was standing _wayyy_ out. :Shrug: what are daughters for? Anyway, I think Denzel and Marlene needed more attention, so here y'are. And to the readers who wanted Tseng/Elena, this is just the beginning. grin  
**A/N later:** I _will_ be incorporating some of your ideas into later chapters, so be patient and keep reading. (I like the thing about Reno in a Santa outfit... buahaha. I'll fit it in somewhere.)

* * *

It had started when Marlene was shaking presents too vigorously under the tree. The shattering sound wasn't a good sign. Marlene froze, and Denzel checked the tag. "To Elena," He read. "From Tseng."

"What'll we do, Denzel? She'll kill us. _He'll_ kill us." Marlene's lip was quivering.

"I dunno… maybe we should just leave it."

"And just let Elena-chan open it tomorrow and cry?"

"Aww, Marlene, she won't _cry_. She'll just…"

"…Cry. And throw things."

"…Yea. You're right." Denzel rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "She likes Tseng too much. Well… let's open it, I guess."

Marlene gasped. "_What_?"

Denzel frowned at her. "It's for a _good cause_, Marlene. Maybe we can replace it."

Without further ado, he ripped open the gaudy red-and-golden wrapping paper and revealed what used to be a delicate glass angel that Elena had ooh-ed and aah-ed over in the store display window last week during snowshoeing. Its body was in four big pieces, and the wings were nothing but glass crumbs among the tissue paper. Denzel gasped. "It musta cost a _fortune_."

* * *

Later, after telling Tifa that he was taking Marlene out to build some snowmen, Denzel and Marlene climbed atop the towering snow and snow shoed—all by themselves—to the store that Tseng had gotten the glass angel at. The two children had fistfuls of their own savings money grasped tightly in their hands. Sliding down the snow banks, they made their way inside where dozens of last minute shoppers pushed and shoved each other.

To avoid being separated, Denzel tightly held Marlene's hand as they looked frantically around the glass displays in search of an angel. There were thousands upon thousands of rows of small, delicately spun glass figures. Denzel instructed Marlene to start at one end whilst he started at the other. "There's got to be another one around here somewhere," He asserted.

Wrong. After about two hours of squinting, the closest thing they could find was a cupid. When they clambered over to the register to ask about angels, the cashier told them they had sold out of angels four days ago.

"Could you make one now, then?" Denzel said, peering over the cashier's shoulder for a miracle. The cashier shook his head. "The glassblower's in bed with pneumonia, and he's been overworking himself this week with special requests. Sorry, kids, no can do."

Even as Denzel and Marlene pleaded with all their might, shoving their money across the counter at him, he merely shook his head, looked apologetic, and went away. Marlene looked crestfallen.

Denzel sighed and took her hand again. "We tried," He told her. "We tried."

* * *

"Denzel, what is that?"

Denzel looked over his shoulder to where Marlene was pointing. They were almost back to Seventh Heaven, and Denzel was looking forward to a mug of hot chocolate—he couldn't feel his toes anymore. He followed Marlene's outstretched finger to a small, glittering dent in the snow a little ways away. He shrugged, anxiously turning back to the bar. "I dunno. Hurry up, Marlene."

But the footfalls behind him told him that Marlene was slowly making her way over to the dent. Denzel was getting annoyed at her being distracted by every single thing on the planet, and he jerked around impatiently, almost falling flat on his face and plunging twelve feet below the snow. "Marlene, let's go!" He yelled exasperatedly.

But she had picked up the glittery thing, and was holding it in her hand, brushing the snow off.

Denzel kicked his legs up and ran over as fast as his snowshoes would let him, meaning to wrench the thing out of her hands and pull her back to the bar and get the apologizing to everyone about the angel over with.

"Denzel," Marlene breathed, and she held out the thing to him as he neared her. This time, Denzel would have fallen on his face into the snow if Marlene hadn't caught him and held him upright. Rubbing his eyes to make sure it wasn't plastic, or a hoax, or a dream, Denzel squinted at it.

"Who do you think left it here?" Marlene whispered. Denzel shook his head. "I dunno," He said again.

Marlene broke into a grin. "Elena will be so happy. It's a miracle."

And both of them skipped off, their exhaustion forgotten, to Seventh Heaven with the bigger, more intricately carved glass angel that somehow looked exactly like Elena in their hands.

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**A/N:** Tomorrow's Christmas for them. )  



	11. Christmas Morn'

**CHAPTER ELEVEN: DAY SEVENTEEN**  
**--Christmas Morn'--:**It's finally Christmas.  
**A/N:**Yay, it's finally Christmas for them. This was probably one of the hardest chapters for me to write, being as I wanted to give the sentiment of a cozy Christmas morning. How that idea popped into my head when the Turks are around, I've no idea.  
Originally I wanted to get this out by the time Christmas hit (just like how I wanted to get the New Year's chapter by the time New Year's hit...) haha, well, let's just say I don't get the word 'deadlines' and I have no concept of 'hurry' as my friends so fondly remind me every time I'm late. Oh well. Thanks, you guys, for being so patient. Anyway, here goes.

* * *

Tifa thought to get up bright and early to fix the Christmas breakfast. She woke to the sound of footsteps pounding on the landing in their hurry to get downstairs and a sharp, metallic scent in the air that practically bit her nose off. Stretching, she glanced at the time and wondered why her alarm didn't go off.

True to its nature, Christmas day in Edge had brought fresh torrents of snow—as if anybody needed more—and the white flurries of flakes that rather looked like fluffy feathers made Seventh Heaven seem as though it was in the midst of a snow globe.

Shrugging on her bathrobe, Tifa stumbled down the stairs to see Marlene and Denzel rushing past in their hurry to wake everyone up. Moans and groans issued throughout all of the beds, and before long, the two children had rounded up every single bleary-eyed adult in the residence.

They had all gone to sleep late yesterday hanging up the last ornaments on the tree, decorating and tacking up their stockings above the fireplace, and working into the night to make the batch of cookies and milk for Santa (otherwise known as Cloud and Tifa). Consequently, everybody looked like hell, with huge trash bags under their eyes and their hair sticking up at odd angles that strangely defied gravity (more so than Cloud's did every day). Reno grumbled and slurred that the best gift Santa could've given him was sleep and Elena and Tseng agreed, croaking out 'hear, hear'-s before they found themselves slouched on the couches or the floor by the fireplace. Only Marlene and Denzel seemed awake enough to squash on the Santa hats and eagerly pass around gifts for everyone.

After Cloud got the fire going, they all sat back with mugs of steaming cocoa and the gift exchange more or less woke everyone up. And if that didn't, then Reno's window-shattering yell after he ripped open a new, taser-equipped, double-flashlight, metal detector nightstick did. Cloud made a comment that he and Tseng probably shouldn't have banded together to buy Reno that after Reno tackled them both with a huge hug, almost giving Tseng a concussion and almost accidentally tasering Cloud in the process.

Of course Elena's glass snow angel from Tseng got him a well-earned squeal and hug, and nobody noticed the secret smiles that Denzel and Marlene exchanged.

Everybody held their breath when Rude opened his gift of new, flashier orange-reflection shades, and thankfully, when he solemnly put them on and declared himself dashing, everyone burst out into laughter, Tifa punching him on the shoulder to tell him how manly he looked as he blushed.

Cloud's new titanium motorcycle rims were made into a ceremony as everybody trooped out in their pajamas to the garage to watch him and Tseng screw them in. Reno even held a motorbike catalogue, draped a piece of white cloth over his shoulders to look like a priest, and gave a speech which ended with 'until death do you part'. Cloud didn't say much, but Tifa caught him staring at Fenrir with a satisfied look every two seconds, brushing off every piece of lint he could possibly find.

Tseng, of course, got a gun, but it was the newest model with every single detachable gadget known to mankind in the package. Cloud and Tifa had to order it custom by Cloud's special connections. Tseng was seen carrying it around, twirling it flashily around his hands and itching to practice it until Tifa made him put it away after he shot a hole in the wall.

Marlene got new coloring books and crayons, a pricy porcelain doll with five exchangeable dresses, and a new bicycle; and Denzel got rollerblades, a handheld operated car, and a BB gun; and the rest of the morning they drove everybody crazy as Marlene raced Denzel around the house, shouting at the top of their lungs while everyone clucked at everybody else for giving them third helpings of gingerbread cookies and other sources of sugar.

Tifa received a bouquet of exotic Nibelheim wildflowers from Reno, and the way that her eyes lit up, the way that she kissed Reno on the cheek and immediately cut and stuck them in her best crystal vase unnerved Cloud a little, and he suddenly felt some of the Christmas spirit drop from his stomach. That, of course, was revived when she breathlessly held up the diamond necklace that flashed and glinted in the firelight that Cloud gave her. Elena ooh-ed and aah-ed over it, and Tifa, in a surprising bout of shyness, asked Cloud to help her put it on, which he of course, obliged to. She didn't kiss him affectionately as she had Reno, but her hand brushed on top of his when he went to help her with the clasp, and she caught it and squeezed it. Something in her eyes sparkled as she smiled a little at him before her eyes strayed down to admire the pendant.

After that, amongst all the litter of wrapping paper and bows, as Tifa and Elena got up to go finish preparing breakfast, the men suddenly had a good idea having to do with the crumpled paper and Tseng.

When Elena was setting the bread on the table amidst the cheery red tablecloth, the candelabras, and the vases of bright poinsettia, Reno suddenly came in, bowed to her, and gave a rather confusing introduction dealing with 'when a man and a woman love each other very much' and 'hopping'. Elena was just about to tell him to knock it off when Tseng beat her to it and awkwardly hopped into view, wrapped from head to toe in mismatched, half-crumpled paper complete with a garish green bow on his head. While everyone was busy laughing, Elena grew bright red and hurriedly ripped it all off, looking embarrassed. Somebody started the chant of 'KISS HER! KISS HER!', and then they started madly clinking on their glasses with the silverware, and Tseng sheepishly stared at Elena for awhile until he planted a kiss on her. They looked mortified and grumbled a little, but Tifa noted that the twinkle in their eyes as they subtly glanced at each other all throughout breakfast overrode their embarrassment.

The afternoon passed by in a cozy haze. Marlene roped Cloud and Reno into coloring one of the gigantic, six-foot pages in her coloring book with her, which they did, plopping down in front of the fireplace with a plate of cookies. After one of the crayons melted in the fire, Reno and Cloud started having a melting war, Marlene supplying them with her old crayons while egging them on. Denzel and Rude played with his handheld car, zooming it all over the house and building obstacles for it with bookends and pots. At one point it actually went halfway up the wall before it dropped with a sickening '_sploosh_' into the leftover oatmeal. Tifa gave both Tseng and Elena cooking lessons, saying that at least one of the couple needed to know how to cook. Soon, Tseng was up to his elbows in flour while Elena cursed at the stir-fry pan, and Tifa was laughing at the both of them while surreptitiously scraping their disasters into the sink disposal.

At dinner, Tifa inserted one of the discs into the sound system, and as Christmas favorites blared out of the speakers, the Turks started singing along to it. And then Elena started dancing with Tseng, and pretty soon the furniture was getting pushed out of the way to provide for a dance floor in the midst of a bar. Rude taught Denzel how to moonwalk, and Reno scooped Marlene up in his arms and started twirling her around. Marlene wanted to moonwalk too, so Reno set her down and grabbed Tifa in place of Marlene. Then Reno got an idea after he snuck a look at a silent Cloud, and waltzed Tifa in Cloud's direction, and then everyone was pushing Cloud towards Tifa. After they almost banged heads, Cloud tentatively took Tifa's hand, and everybody cheered and started dancing again.

Close to midnight, Tifa wondered if she should get Denzel and Marlene into bed. Cloud seemed to read her mind.

"Maybe you should let them have their fun just for tonight," He said in that low, warm voice that he took with her.

Tifa bit her lip, turned her head around to face him again. "I'm just worried that they'll be tired tomorrow." She caught Cloud's gaze. "Well, all right," she said, melting into a smile. "Just for tonight."

It was Christmas, after all. And for the first time in years, it finally felt like it, too.


	12. Snowmen

**CHAPTER TWELVE: DAY EIGHTEEN**  
**--Snowmen--:**Denzel and Marlene are smart.  
**A/N: **I like Denzel and Marlene. So I decided to write another chapter featuring mostly them. This is _not_ one of my more brilliant works. Inspiration has left me because school has already eaten away at it. Yes, school is eating me, so I can only afford to write a little interlude like this. Sorry for the wait, guys. Thanks for bearing with me. And yes, I will be continuing this fic all the way to new years.

* * *

"You're making her head too small!" 

"What would you know, you're not even tall enough to _see_ her head."

"I can too and it's too small. And her feet are crooked."

"Fix them, then. You're closer. And his head is _not_ too small and stop bothering me."

"Den_zel_…" Marlene huffed, contemplated throwing a snowball at his head, thought better of it, and crouched down to the snowman's feet to pack in a little more snow. It was hard work on snowshoes. She wound her multi-colored scarf that Elena—yes, Elena—had knitted for her out of affection and boredom more tightly around her neck.

Denzel had his eyes squinted to contemplate the head.

"How should we do her hair? It'll be kinda hard…"

Marlene stuck her tongue out at him. "What do I know? I'm not tall enough to _see_ her head."

Denzel frowned at her. "Work on the other one, then."

Marlene sighed and ignored him, taking her time to correct the feet. Finally made them just the right length, and clomped over to work on the other snowman. She took two painted coals to squish them into the snow to make the eyes. There. That was perfect.

On the other side, Denzel had decided to use black yarn to make the hair. Marlene's eyes widened.

"Denzel, why're you giving her a beard? She doesn't have a beard."

"It's not a beard, that's the back of her head!"

"No, it's not. That's her face." Marlene rolled her eyes before hurrying over to help before everyone got home. Boys. They couldn't do anything right.

* * *

"Are they coming yet?" 

Denzel obligingly peeked his head around the corner of the shed. "I can't tell… there they are!"

The two children giggled, their previous argument forgotten, and hurried around to the safety of the building so that the adults couldn't see them, peeking their head around the corner so they could spy on their reaction.

"D'you think they can tell who it is?" Denzel asked, critically eyeing their handiwork as the adults of Seventh Heaven approached, back from working on the helicopter. Marlene drew her eyebrows together and didn't answer.

* * *

"Hey, what is that?" 

The other ones followed Elena's finger to two pillars of snow in the front of Seventh Heaven. Tifa rubbed her eyes. "I think they're… snowmen…"

As they approached, they could clearly make out two snow people: the first, what appeared to be a girl with long black hair looking surprised. The second, another person with blond straw hair and blue eyes, holding out a box of some sort. Tseng stomped closer, inspecting the second snow person as he rubbed his chin.

"Is that Elena? I think it's Elena…"

Reno suddenly guffawed. "It's Cloud!" He pointed at something. "See, that's the sword on his back. A sword made of sticks… interesting, yo." He was laughing so hard by now he had tears in his eyes, and was doubled over. Elena was studying the first person. "I think this is Tifa… what's Cloud holding out to her?"

"Chocolates? Yea, they're chocolates… it says so." Rude pointed at an inscription written on the box that read, "CHOCOLATES."

"I think this is some sorta hint, yo." Reno said snidely, clapping Tifa on the back.

Tifa felt her cheeks warm and dared not look at Cloud, who was standing quietly by her side.

Cloud raised his eyebrow, the corner of his eye catching two little giggling figures disappearing behind the shed. How did they know about the chocolates? So much for the surprise.


	13. 7 Minutes in 'Seventh' Heaven

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DAY TWENTY  
--7 Minutes in Heaven--:**Reno has feelings, too…  
**A/N:** This is more sentimental than any other chapter, I think, as well as angsty. I said I'd avoid angst, so damn. I'm not sure why I decided to make it a songfic. Reno wants what he can't have. I have a resurgence of ReTi. And it's rather short. I like it that way. This is another one of my favorite chapters.  
**Credit:** Song: 7 Minutes in Heaven - Fall Out Boy. I just got the CD for my birthday on **February 1. **(I'm 17!)  
**Notice:** Hey, readers and reviewers! I am so friggin sorry for the long ass wait. My computer first got really stupid and temporarily erased everything and we had to get some computer nerds over here to fix it. (You should have seen me - I was freaking out.) And then school got in the way of my life. But I'll be posting daily from now on. I've only got 3 chapters to go. Thanks for waiting, anyway. I less than three you guys!

* * *

It was grocery-shopping day. It had turned into a field trip, and in a sudden flurry of winter coats, freshly knit scarves, and rubber boots on snowshoes, the house was empty.

Reno had contracted a cold, and had slept through it. Through a haze of dream-talk and blurry vision, he thought he remembered Marlene mandating him to look after Tifa, who had the flu. He couldn't remember his reaction, except for maybe the plummeting of his stomach as he rolled over and tried to forget it.

_I'm sleeping my way out of this on  
__With anyone who will lie down…_

As he made himself some tea to the abnormally quiet quarters, Reno sat down moodily. Why couldn't Chocobo-boy look after the damn bar owner?  
He supposed that he'd better haul ass up to her room in case she needed water or something.  
For a moment he didn't move, staring into the fucking tea dregs that he never liked to drink anyway. Tifa had got him off of coffee.

Tifa had done a lot to him.

_I'll be stuck fixated on one star  
__When the world is crashing down…_

These days, Reno would rather avoid Tifa. Hell, he'd never been the chivalrous or the noble type to give up on anyone. But there was Chocobo-boy to think about. She wasn't even anything particularly special. Reno had seen better-looking ones. But there was just something in the way that she talked, touched his arm, stared at him that made him…bite his lip to keep consciousness until Cloud came and he could escape somewhere and slap some sense into himself.

He wouldn't be good for her anyhow. Sure he was great, much better than Cloud, at getting laughs and flirty smiles out of her from underneath those eyelashes. But that was about it. Cloud could give her everything she wanted. She wasn't special anyway.

_I'll keep telling myself that  
__I keep telling myself  
__I'm not the desperate type…_

A cough issued downstairs. Fuck. Reno stared down at his tea a moment more, then slid off his barstool and clomped up the stairs, halfway remembering to be quiet and muting the volume of his feet down to a tiptoe.

Cautiously opening her bedroom door, he eased himself in and shut the door behind him. She was sleeping, the covers scattered everywhere. Reno pulled them straight so they covered her, smoothed out the rumples, pulled a chair over, and sat down, listening to her breathe.

_I'm really not the desperate type  
__But you've got me looking in through blinds…_

Her cheeks were flushed and feverish, and every once in awhile, her face would contract into one of worry. She would bite her lip and her eyebrows would knot, and Reno wished he could do something about it. Once or twice he made to wake her from her nightmare, but thought better of it as his hand hovered in midair, and slowly let it drop.

_I'm sitting out dances on the wall  
__Trying to forget everything that isn't you…_

A lock of hair fell onto her fair face as she rolled over, facing him. Her left hand was outstretched towards him.

Reno suddenly remembered Elena teaching him to palm read last year. Bending over her hand, he gently straightened her fingers and looked at her lifeline. It was long… very, very long.

That was it, then. She wouldn't be his because he couldn't guarantee her that.

_I'm not going home alone  
_'_Cause I don't do too well on my own…_

He thought about it a moment, chewing on his bottom lip, contemplating whether to do it or not. His hand seemed to reach out on its own and brush the stray lock of hair away from her sleeping form, stroking her cheek softly.  
The pained look on her face miraculously smoothed away, and she sighed deeply.

_The only thing worse than not knowing  
__Is you thinking that I don't know…_

Whenever things would get a little too deep than plain, innocent flirting, he would make some lame excuse and back away and shut himself up in the bathroom for awhile until his heartbeat returned to normal. She thought he was just being his usual player self. He let her think that.

_I'm having another episode  
__I just need a stronger dose…_

Tifa seemed to smile at him through her sleep, and her outstretched hand softly grabbed onto his. She sighed again, but this time a word came out with it: his name.

Reno sat there, hand trapped in hers, not daring to move, to blink, to breathe for fear of shattering the moment.

_I keep telling myself…_

He didn't have to. Happy shouts with door slams floated up to him from downstairs.  
He eased his hand out of hers, hand growing cold.

_I'm not the desperate type…_

And got up from the chair, taking his teacup in the process. He decided he needed more tea.

_But you've got me looking in through blinds._


	14. Countdown

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: DAY TWENTY-THREE  
**--Countdown--:**Not in front of the kids!  
**A/N:** I contemplated whether or not I wanted Yuffie, Cid, Vincent, and Barrett to make an appearance in this episode (installment?). Then I decided that I couldn't do that without them having some sort of fight with the Turks in the beginning, and I was way too tired to write out an action sequence. So sorry. Either way, it ended up being some sort of noisy fiasco (can't you just imagine the noise level? Talk about headaches). Anyway, happy v-day all - or in my case, singles awareness day. Have a good one!

* * *

When Reno busted out the huge keg about the size of a small elephant, that's when Tifa contemplated whether or not to kick him out by the behind.

New years was just around the corner, and Tifa had wanted to have a nice and snug little midnight party to make up for the one that they had failed to have on Christmas day. The year itself had been one big draining day, and now that it had finally come to an end, Tifa wanted to start the New Year with a great hibernation until at least the next coming.

Of course, as Marlene so tactfully put it, Tifa had forgotten the 'four monsters' that they were housing now.

The day had been full of activities that had driven them all crazy, up-down-diagonal-sideways-through the wall crazy.

* * *

**SEVEN A.M. **Tifa awakes to the sounds of the two children plus Reno having a powwow downstairs, complete with yelling, dancing, and hysterical singing of what sounded like "IT'S NEW YEARS, IT'S NEW YEARS, LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA" to the tune of 'It's Raining, It's Pouring' while they square-danced. Tifa blames it on the weird casserole Elena had made for them yesterday, but still, the unnecessary three-human mosh pit doesn't stop until Tifa screams herself hoarse, busts a groggy up-kick at Reno's solar plexus, and threatens to lock them in the tool shed and set it on fire. The three grumpily trudge back to bed and ten minutes later, when Tifa goes to check on the unnatural quiet, finds them all snoring. She still isn't sure if it was all sleepwalking.

**NINE A.M.** Tseng and Elena are found missing, and Reno and Rude go insane for the second time in the day, thinking that their comrades have eloped in their only getaway—the helicopter—without them. Reno is threatening to send out the search parties and Rude has his snowshoes strapped on, swearing that he'll walk all the way to their HQ (Denzel asks if he'll yodel too, as it is apparently the perfect day to yodel) when Cloud finds the note on the bar countertop, written by Tseng. _Tell Reno and Rude not to worry_, it read. _We're at the market to get some fresh food for tonight, and will be back in an hour or so._

Well, thought Tifa as she and Cloud gave the two Turks mild sedatives, it's a bit late for that.

Walking back over to the bar with Cloud, she glances at him and he gives her a knowing look. Yep. Both of them already have headaches. She gets out the painkillers.

**TEN A.M.** Tseng and Elena, true to their word, magically appear out of the snow, hauling truckloads of food (or so it seems). Tifa has nowhere to put half of it—including the umpteenth bag of cheese puffs—until Denzel tells her he'll dispose of it. Tifa, too distracted, gives him the endless amounts of snacks. Fifteen minutes later, Cloud finds her lecturing Denzel and Rude at the top of her lungs that eating contests are BAD. Rude looks more ashamed than Denzel.

**ELEVEN A.M.** Reno almost has a heart attack when he finds out that Seventh Heaven doesn't house any firecrackers or strobe lights. He volunteers to go out to buy the necessary objects, and Marlene tags along after him. Both of them are heard yodeling all the way back to Seventh Heaven.

**TWELVE-THIRTY P.M.** Reno and Marlene struggle back with even more bags than Tseng and Elena brought home. By now the place is overflowing with junk, and is beginning to resemble a warehouse. Denzel pops party poppers and Marlene blows on the whistles until, surprisingly, Cloud tells them sternly to save it until tonight. He is seen lugging all of the 'equipment' upstairs and tells them he's not taking it back down until at least 9 o'clock.

**ONE P.M.** They have a late lunch of ham and salami sandwiches because Tifa's too tired to cook and nobody else has the patience to. Elena asks Tifa what happened to the casserole because she was sure they had leftovers. Tifa mumbles something incoherent and Cloud almost chokes into his water. So that's what the indistinguishable thing was that Tifa flushed down the sink disposal.

**TWO P.M.** After endless begging, Tifa finally gives in to the children's request to stay up until midnight. But, she says, the catch is that they have to take a nap now for at least two hours to make up for lost resting time. Besides, she insists, they've had enough excitement in one morning to last a lifetime. Denzel and Marlene have to be dragged kicking and screaming upstairs, but within ten minutes they're fast asleep. Tifa finds herself yawning, and settles on the couch by the fire to where an exhausted Elena—after washing up the dishes—has already collapsed. Rude is already snoring in the back room—Cloud can hear him. After covering them with flannel blankets from the office (to where Tseng has fallen asleep sprawled out on the desk), Cloud goes up to his room to catch a bit of shut-eye himself—and finds Reno asleep on the couch beside his bed. Guess they were more tired than they thought.

**SIX P.M.** It is, naturally, Cloud who wakes up first. He is shocked to find that they've already been asleep for four hours and counting. Reno is still snoring, and when Cloud shakes him, he directs an unconscious punch at his face, which would have definitely hurt if Cloud's reflexes weren't as agile as they are. Tseng jerks up when Cloud wakes him up and shouts, "FOURTY-FOUR BEHINDS!" Cloud decides not to decode that one. Marlene and Denzel wakes up at Tseng's yell, and seem to be the only two glad to get up. Rude sighs depressingly when they go wake him, and Tifa and Elena hide under the covers, protesting for five more minutes and sounding ironically like Denzel and Marlene in the morning on school days.

After everyone is physically and mentally awake, Tifa starts cooking, Cloud and Tseng bring down the huge T.V. (1), and Reno and Rude bring down all the beds to make one huge group bed thing in the middle of the bar. Denzel and Marlene decorate the house with the confetti Tifa armed them with to keep them busy.

**SEVEN P.M.** Tseng kindles the fire, and as everybody is getting stomach-rumble hungry, they all troupe to the kitchen to help Tifa cook. Denzel starts hurling pasties at Reno, who throws back and hits Cloud, and then Marlene smears cake batter all over Elena, and it is about to turn into a food war until Tifa, feeling like Johnny Raincloud—even though she mashed a few raw meatballs into Elena's face herself—orders them to actually do what they set out to do: help her. Out come the aprons, and everyone gets down to work.

**EIGHT P.M.** Everyone wanted something different for dinner so they made everything. Dinner consists of one large roasted chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, medium-rare steak, and stir-fry as well as side dishes like salad, egg rolls, and potato cakes. Dessert is strawberry cheesecake the size of the moon and a block of tiramisu able to feed 400 people. After dinner inevitably comes a belching contest, and when Denzel starts burping the alphabet song, Tifa decides to let the bad table manners pass just for tonight.

**EIGHT-THIRTY P.M.** Again, Tifa shoos everyone upstairs to take showers. After they're all nice, damp, and clean, they settle down in the huge combined bed. Cloud gets the party favors back out, and the bar is transformed into a glowing floor, with dizzying colorful lights and candles. Once in awhile, Denzel, unable to resist the temptation, pops a party popper. Marlene busts out Twister, and after cajoling both Cloud and Rude into playing, they spend an hour twisting into funny positions on the floor. Then the adults play Poker, and Reno turns out to sweep the house clean of the gambling chips. He does a victory dance the first couple of times he wins, and then everyone yells at him to stop. He stops.

**TEN P.M. **The T.V. is turned on, and they watch an old favorite cartoon marathon that has been in circulation since Cloud and Tifa were kids.

**ELEVEN P.M.** Reno gets out the keg, and Tifa has already put on her fighting gloves until Cloud is able to calm her down and tell Reno _not in front of the kids_. Reno has to roll it out back until the kids go to bed. Marlene asks Denzel what a keg is. Denzel shrugs and says he doesn't know.

**ELEVEN-FIFTYNINE P.M. **Too excited to sit still, everyone, even Tseng, is on the edge of their seats watching the clock. Denzel eagerly hands out the party poppers. When the countdown from ten begins, they shout themselves hoarse. Elena tells Tifa that it's good luck to be kissed at exactly the stroke of twelve. Tifa catches Cloud listening, and both of them quickly look away.

**TWELVE A.M.** HAPPY NEW YEAR! Denzel, Marlene, and Reno break out into the same hysterical dance that they did that morning. Then Denzel and Marlene, who have been rubbing their eyes since 10, are satisfied at having stayed up for one whole day—apparently the four hour long nap didn't count—and fall asleep again. Reno again rolls in the keg, and Cloud gives Tifa a helpless look when Elena starts passing out the glasses. Cloud gives a filled glass of champagne to Tifa, who sighs and downs it.

**TWELVE-THIRTY A.M.** Reno challenges all the males to a drinking contest. Elena gets infuriated and says that the females can join in too.

**TWELVE-FOURTYFIVE A.M.** Elena falls off the side of the couch. Reno is slurring his words. Tifa is seeing double, and Rude is swaying. Cloud and Tseng are a bit red at the ears, but both are still going strong. Denzel and Marlene are still snoring.

**ONE-FIFTEEN A.M.** Reno, Rude, and Elena have broken out into song, warbling mindlessly at the top of their lungs in broken voices. Tseng attempts to look dignified and tries to tell them to stop, shaking his finger at them, but his aim misses by several feet and nobody understands what he tells them to do. It sounds a bit like, "Shet don and see bwyet." Tifa feels a bit nauseous. Cloud offers to hold her hair if she has to vomit, but gets too amused with the black sheath of raven hair and starts tugging on it too hard.

**TWO A.M.** "ONE, YER LIKE A DREAM COME TWUUUUUU… TWO, JUSS WANNA BEEE WIFFFF YOUUUUSSS…" All of the once-dignified adults have somehow, even in their drunken state, managed to get on top of the bar counter and sway and sing—at the same time!—like a church choir. Halfway through, Reno bumps into Elena, and falls off the countertop with a crash, bringing Elena and Tseng with him on the way. Tseng passes out on the floor. Reno manages to crawl over to the bed thing but can't figure out how to get on top of the soft mattress, and after two failed tries to jump onto it, falls asleep on the floor as well. Elena uses Reno as a doorstep to get onto the bed, nearly crushing the two children as she flops onto it. Rude falls over backwards with a crash onto the couch. Cloud and Tifa, the only two left standing on top of the countertop, proclaim themselves kings of the mountain before their knees buckle and they lose consciousness on top of the counter. Marlene and Denzel are dreaming of sugarplum fairies.

**TEN A.M.** Hangovers, and Denzel and Marlene are confused by the adult's chosen sleeping places and how none of them can seem to wake up.

But that's another story for another time.

Happy (belated!) New Years from everyone at Seventh Heaven!


	15. Last Chances

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DAY TWENTY-SIX  
--Last Chances--:** Spare underwear? Check…  
**A/N:** This being the **second-to-last chapter**, I got a little sentimental when I was writing it and decided to include a little of everybody. I couldn't help myself but make it a little heartwarming. It's so short because I couldn't write anymore. I'm sure that the next chapter will be even shorter. Some wise guy once said that the less words are said, the more meaning they have. So here is the brevity of the soul.

* * *

The helicopter was finally fixed. Tseng came tromping in that morning to share the news, and though there was a smattering of happiness throughout everybody, the smiles seemed forced and unnatural. The conversation stopped that morning. It was a quiet breakfast for the first time Tifa and Cloud could remember since the Turks arrived.

How is it that once somebody becomes part of your life, and you get so used to seeing them every day that they have a piece of your heart… that suddenly, they have to leave?

What happens?

Do they take that piece of your heart that belongs to them along when they leave?

And… what would hurt more? Tearing out that piece of your heart to give back to them, or keeping it with you to reminisce with a bittersweet air every day?

"I'll be back soon to visit you," Elena said to Denzel. She had unclipped the pictures of her and the little boy playing monster trucks that had been stuck to the refrigerator door for so long, and had packed them away. Cloud had asked Denzel to help Elena and Tseng pack their bags, but for the most part, the boy had sat silently on the edge of her bed fiddling with his jacket. The zipper of her suitcase was tightly drawn in for the last time, and she stood up to stretch, looking around the bare room that had once been strewn full of her things.

"I'll be back," Elena said before leaving the room. "I'll be back."

Denzel stared at the blonde's retreating back and wondered if the moistness on her face were tears. The room was empty, and before leaving himself, he unzipped her suitcase and quickly stuck another carefully wrapped glass angel inside. This time it was of a woman angel and two children. Denzel hoped she would know it was him and Marlene. He kissed it once for luck, zipped the baggage back up, and left.

Cloud, Rude, and Tseng's goodbyes were formal, brief, and full of compressed emotion in which neither of the men revealed. Packing the sorrow tightly down into a corner of their hearts where nobody would be able to lift it again, the three shook hands and exchanged words. Cloud found that he no longer spoke with so much tension around the Turks anymore. As he helped Tseng wrap up his weapons in the metal boxes, he surprisingly found himself admitting that indeed, the house would seem much more empty without the four monsters in it. They were family now.

"Uncle Reno?"

"Hm?"

"You won't forget about me… or anything… right?"

Devoid of his usual silliness, Reno's face seemed abnormally somber. It didn't fit him, and Marlene had wondered when he was going to smile again. Now, he paused awhile, stuffing shirts into the suitcase, before answering. "No."

One-word answers were supposed to come from Rude, or Cloud. Not Reno Turk. Marlene stood watching Reno shuffle around the room before asking, "Are you sad?"

"What?" Reno seemed to think about his answer before carefully saying, false cheerfulness lacing his voice, "No, of course not. Are you kidding, yo? Soon I'll be back to work doing what I love most. Nope, can't get any happier than I am…"

And then, surprisingly, he hesitated, and said in a low voice, almost as if it was hard to say, "But… I guess I'll be a little sad." Seeing Marlene's smile, he hastily added, "Just a little, though! I'll miss waking up late, is all. Don't get any funny ideas in that overactive imagination of yours, yo."

And then Marlene asked if she could give him something, and Reno said yes, and she presented him with the final picture of her and him hand in hand—the one that had taken her all night to draw.

From the door, Tifa watched Reno lift Marlene and spin her a final time, and kiss her on the cheek as she giggled.

Tifa had wanted to say goodbye to him, herself… but she didn't know what to say. She had stood outside for at least fifteen minutes, before she finally decided that just being able to watch him was better.

What happens to your heart when that someone leaves?

You keep it with you, hold it dear to your heart, and know that they still love you… wherever they may be.


	16. Endings

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN: DAY TWENTY-SEVEN**  
**--Endings--:**It's time to go…  
**A/N:** This isn't an ending; it's just a new beginning…  
**A/N2:** Ahh, so here we are at the parting. If you would like a detailedexplanation of why it took me so long to update, see my profile, but the short of it is that my computer decided to buzz on me, I lost the story, and was too lazy to rewrite the last chapter going off of memory until now.  
Anyway, it's here. Thanks to all my readers for sticking with me these four months (wow... four months. it's been rough). Your encouragement and support kept me going, and I sincerely thank you (Reno does too!). Please keep this on your favorites if you liked it, and to all those who have never reviewed yet, please do now - it's the last chapter!  
**NOTE: I'M CONTEMPLATING MAKING A SHORT EPILOGUE**. If I do, it's no more of this sentimental gush. Instead, it'll be a bit bizarre... your thoughts? And who knows, I might go and do all the holidays! (Thinks about the workload and faints) Err, maybe in the summer when I'm not swarmed with work...  
Okay, well, I'll let you get on with it. Au revoir, and until next time! I won't be far away - look for me.** - x belles

* * *

**

The Turks left quietly on a snow blown morning. The wind was wafting the snow left on the ground gently side to side in little puffs, and the sun was not out, almost as if the sky itself was mourning the end.

It was so sudden, and so yet unreasonable—just like the way they came—except this time didn't feel right, not even after the day had gone.

Few goodbyes were exchanged. Tseng's were too stiff and exactly like his work character, and would fit him if Cloud and co. didn't know better after seeing his at-home antics. Elena's eyes were red and she was gone in the blink of an eye, dragging her suitcase out the door; Rude was quiet as always; and Reno simply refused to say goodbye. He warned Cloud that he would be back, and Tseng agreed, saying that Tifa's bar was too much of a gem to pass over. They'd be back on their next break or so—hey, maybe even next weekend to catch a whiskey or two.

But the unspoken word that everyone thought hung in the air like gloom: it wouldn't be the same as living with them.

And that was it. The door slammed behind them, their footsteps slowly faded away to the wind, and all that was left were the footprints leading out to the copter. Tifa looked around at her bar. Not a towel or shot glass was out of place—nobody would even know that the Turks had just been sitting here, or lounging there, or laughing and having a cup of cocoa over there just a minute ago.

After piling the cots and couches back where they belonged, Cloud disappeared out the door. Marlene shut herself in her room to take a nap, and Denzel sullenly went out to a friend's.

Tifa was cleaning behind the counter when somebody knocked at her door, and she shuffled over to reveal none other but old Mr. Fergal who owned the pharmacy down the street.

"Delivery," was all he would say before accepting a small tip and rushing back to his busy store.

Tifa looked down at the thick envelope in her arms and confusedly tore the lip of the cardboard open, digging an arm inside to feel a glossy edge. They were the pictures over all of Christmas break.

Tifa smiled to herself.

The pictures had gotten jumbled up in the envelope and were in disarray. There were ten pictures of Elena's various culinary pieces, from charred salmon to hardboiled apple pie, Elena herself in the background looking a bit embarrassed but obviously pleased (she never had to sample the pieces herself). There was Tseng carrying Denzel on his shoulders after he lost some bet or other; the ice-skating escapade when they were all playing the hockey game; and the two snowmen that Denzel and Marlene built of Cloud and Tifa, with the real things standing by them, Cloud looking a bit disgruntled. There were quite a few of Reno's bright red hair clashing with the pink ribbons that were strewn all over him like confetti, Marlene in the background giggling; the one of Tseng and Elena dancing on Christmas, with the Christmas tree in the background, went into a frame that hung over the mantle; Rude making snow angels with Denzel and Marlene out in the snow; and Tseng and Rude covered in honey and shaving cream.

Another of Reno coloring with Marlene, their silhouettes almost glowing against the fireplace, went up on the fridge where Marlene was sure to see it. The quite dazzling pictures of the adults of Seventh Heaven drunkenly singing atop the bar counter on New Year's made Tifa blush and she hid them away where Denzel and Marlene would never find them; and she made sure to set apart the four Turks busing tables to be blown up into bigger versions that would later hang over the bar walls (the one of Reno charming the ladies would go above the ladies restroom).

Tifa set aside the ones of everyone camping out in front of the fireplace the night the heat went out to be framed in the upstairs hallway.

And then, of course, was the group picture that they had taken on packing day.

There was Rude, standing slightly apart from everyone else with his solemn face behind the shades he always insisted on wearing that hid a crazy, somewhat fatherly figure; there was Reno, one arm slung around Rude, the other one balancing a laughing Marlene atop his shoulders and wild red hair, with the signature smirk gracing his lips; there were Tseng and Elena, arms around each other, both of them with flushed cheeks (yes, even Tseng) with Denzel standing on a chair behind them making bunny ears on their heads; there was Cloud, who had been harassed by everyone else to stand in the smack middle of the picture; and then Tifa, who had stood behind Cloud and made like Denzel, giving the fair-haired boy rabbit ears as well, though her fingers were almost hidden by his hair.

For some sentimental reason or another, Tifa found herself sniffing as a solitary tear rolled down her cheek and almost plopped onto the picture.

And then, somehow, Cloud was behind her, and Tifa didn't know how long he had been there for or how long she had stared at the picture. They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes.

Finally, Cloud hoisted himself off of the floor and offered a helping hand to Tifa, who took it and stood up.

"They'll be back sooner than we like," Cloud said in a low voice, a bit gruffer than usual.

Tifa smiled as she prepared to make some tea and get back to 'normal' life, whatever that was. "I know." She knew.

The next week delivered a postcard from the Turks that Denzel discovered in the mailbox and almost gave himself a concussion over trying to jump through a back window into the bar to directly deliver it to his guardians.

_Wish we were still there!_ It read, in Elena's round scrawl. _We're all doing fine here, except we miss Tifa's cooking and coloring with the kids, and, of course, Cloud, too! Back before you know it! Love, Elena, Reno, Tseng, and Rude._

Of course, that went on the fridge, too, so Tifa, Cloud, Denzel, and Marlene could see it every day and count down the days until the Turks, their family, came back.

_-End-_


	17. Tis the Season II!

**Author's Note as of two years later:**

Exactly two years later that I started this cozy little ficlet, it is with happiness that I announce the continuation of the widely-loved 'Tis the Season:

**'Tis the Season II: A Turk Reunion**

It is done in the same format as the original; that is, it is a collection of drabbles/shorts, all following a timeline and contributing to the big story that is the Turks crashing Seventh Heaven to make for a very loud Holiday season. I am very excited to be doing it again; I've thought it appropriate to gift my readers with a second gift so this one doesn't become too recycled :).

'Tis II can be found at my profile. Expect regular updates, if not daily, as well as much silliness abounding _and_ the continuation of the Cloud/Tifa/Reno triangle - with a bit of closure on that subject.

I hope it will continue in the same fashion as this one did, to bring a smile to your face and a memory of family and warm apple cider on a cold day.

All my best,

_belle.nisce  
December 3, 2007_


End file.
